Meet the academic setting up a Shakespeare theatre group with recently-released prisoners in Yorkshire

Recently-released prisoners in Sheffield will be stepping into the shoes of Sir Kenneth Branagh, Dame Judi Dench and Sir Ian McKellen with the help of Bard enthusiast, Rowan Mackenzie.

Having just completed a PhD looking at how Shakespeare can be used to benefit deprived communities, Ms Mackenzie has four years of experience working with convicted criminals and setting up theatre companies inside prisons across the country.

Now she has started working alongside South Yorkshire's Violence Reduction Unit (VRU), which funds initiatives to combat the long-term causes of crime, to set up the Beyond the Walls project – a drama group for people re-adjusting to life outside prison.

Based in Bramley, Rotherham, Ms Mackenzie said works such as Macbeth, Hamlet and Othello have previously helped inmates to "channel emotions in a positive way".

"Most of these people have suffered a lot of trauma, as well as having inflicted a lot of trauma, too," she said.

"When they are released, often they don’t have families to go back to or will not be able to find employment easily, if at all."

Beyond the Walls is aimed at preventing ex-offenders in South Yorkshire from re-offending – especially at a time when jobs are scarce and people are separated by the lockdown.

"People think I am insane for going into prisons and saying, ‘let’s do some Shakespeare’.

"But it helps a lot of people to find their voice, to project it and to develop confidence, as well as working together as a team to create something that is theirs to show. Added to that, these people are taking on such world-renowned roles."

Workshops commenced this week and will be held on Monday evenings, although they are currently taking place on Zoom due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Ms Mackenzie said she plans to start with Macbeth, as the Scottish play's linear plot makes it easier to grasp.

"I think the story of a man whose ambitions lead to his own downfall is something that most people can relate to in some way or another."

Ex-offenders working with Ms Mackenzie often put their own spin on the plays, adapting the language and tweaking details in the plot to make it tell their own stories.

She recalled a previous production with the Gallowfield Players – a theatre company set up with prisoners at HMP Gartree in Leicestershire – where inmates staged The Merchant of Venice.

"The prisoner who wrote the script was an incredibly talented guy and wanted to tackle the stigma of being a ‘lifer’," she said.

"Shylock was a recently-released life sentence prisoner, and Jessica, his daughter, hated him because she didn’t want to be associated with him."

Ms Mackenzie added: "One of the inmates’ mothers came up to me afterwards and said, ‘thank you for giving me back my son’. She said he hadn’t been her son for a long time, but that watching him act, she had seen the man she recognised as her child."

Beyond the Walls currently has funding for six months, and Ms Mackenzie hopes she will be more available further down the line.

She hopes that the opportunity to speak Hamlet's famous 'To be or not to be' soliloquy and the chance to step into roles such as Prospero, Iago or Richard III will help reform people in projecting their voice, learning key team-building skills and re-discovering their confidence.

The issues of violence and sexual violence often depicted in the Bard's plays can help convicted criminals to unburden themselves whilst also coming to terms with the human impact of their offending.

"These people will never be able to reintegrate back into society if they cannot move beyond the stigma and the labels attached to them," Ms Mackenzie said.

"They may be a prison inmate or a convicted offender, but they are also a human. Prison should be a deprivation of freedom, not a deprivation of humanity."

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